Apple and Motorola made a surprising announcement today: iTunes-compatible mobile phones are on the way! The Motorola phones will be capable of syncing with iTunes (on both platforms) and playing music in iTunes formats (including AAC). The press release did not make a big deal of this, but this is the first instance of a FairPlay licensee. This is also the first hardware (other than an iPod or PC) to play AAC files. The phones are due out in the first half of 2005. The only word so far on how much storage to expect comes in the form of a Steve Jobs quote to Reuters: “Wouldn't it be great if you could take a dozen of your favorite songs with you on your phone?” Read more in Apple's press release. How well do you think these will do on the market? If 12 songs is right that's about an album's worth. If you don't own an iPod or similar device it might be nice, but I think I'd sooner recommend some flash player that had more storage before recommending what's sure to be an expensive phone that can only hold an album's worth of music. Time will tell.

USER COMMENTS 42 comment(s)

iPod supplement(11:31am EST Tue Jul 27 2004)It'd be nice to have choices. Don't feel like bringing both the iPod and the phone with me on a hot. “liesurely dress” day… Don't have to.

Just set up a smart playlist with the rule “less than X Mb total” and then your own custom rules.. and sync to your phone.

Win-win– by MacJedi

hang on(11:34am EST Tue Jul 27 2004)it won't be just about carrying songs about, it will be about having your favorite song as a ring tone. lets not forget we now have an offial ring tone chart in the UK. This is a wise move. Be interesting to see what comes of this.

– by spacca

WOW(11:34am EST Tue Jul 27 2004)APPLE IS KICKING ASS….. – by err

More hardware!(12:15pm EST Tue Jul 27 2004)The more hardware that supports AAC, the better the market for AAC. – by dsfgdsag

a thought(1:00pm EST Tue Jul 27 2004)Makes one wonder if Apple licensed them FarePlay under the agreement that Moto wouldn't up the storage capacity to… say… – by MacJedi

Batteries! Batteries!(2:53pm EST Tue Jul 27 2004)Cool concept… but wouldn't that eat more battery time. Then when the time comes when you really need your phone, it's dead 'cause you were listening to too many damn songs!

I think cell phones already have too much goin' on. If I had an IPOD I would use it for it's primary purpose to listen to songs, and use my cell for its primary purpose, to be a “CELL PHONE”

my 4.5 cents for the day :) – by the rubber

Batteries(6:01pm EST Tue Jul 27 2004)Yeah, I used to get 7-10 days per charge on my mobile phone. Now my camera phone with bluetooth gets 2-4 days depending on my use of the camera and the bluetooth, but just having the color screen is a battery killer.

– by recharging guy

haha(6:21pm EST Tue Jul 27 2004)I believe that this site is now in order.

ha – by Coach Z

No Flames Yet?(6:39pm EST Tue Jul 27 2004)Well, lets get it started:

Apple and Motorolla are the worst #$%^^%$@ companies in the world, right behind Micro^%$@#$%!!!!!!

Saw it coming(8:36pm EST Tue Jul 27 2004)This is something I saw coming for a while. What's better than a Motorola that plays AAC? A mobile smartphone running some kind of MacOS. Give me an iPodPhone with a camera so I can access iChat and iTunes.

I hate Motorola. Never had any good experiences with them. With the price of new phones it would work out cheaper buying an iPod and a separate cell phone. The Motorola will need to have a competitive price tag.

I'm not too sure about scrubbing frames but I do know that I can scrub the outside of my windows tower???

:)

THe RUbbEr Man – by I'm sooo… flexible

i'm not suprised.(10:49pm EST Tue Jul 27 2004)Hmm. The company that produces the G4 processor for Apple is now letting Apple port iTunes to their phones. – by u scratch my back

YESH.(10:56pm EST Tue Jul 27 2004)They should port it to the PocketPC so users can finally enjoy a decent audio app on their handhelds. :) – by iTunes for PocketPC

mmm,,,,(2:20am EST Wed Jul 28 2004)Just using my crystal ball…..as the convergence trend marches on, and the phone companies are having to shoehorn more ' must have ' features into their phones to maintain sales, the Mp3 player feature will get beter and better, and so eventually competeing directly with the iPod. As mentioned earlier, having the two combines means having one less thing to carry around/charge etc. SO………..this must force Apple to consider adding a phone feature to their iPod, thus creating and Apple branded phone…which I for one would welcome…. – by Maximillian

no, not immediate “convergence”(9:38am EST Wed Jul 28 2004)Remember that Apple holds all the marbles in this agreement.

Apple would never draft a contract that would cannabalize its own hardware sales down the road.